France are crowned-winner of the 2018 World Cup courtesy of a 4-2 win over Croatia in an entertaining final at the Luzhniki Stadium this afternoon.
The highest scoring final in World Cup history had a bit of everything – as well as an own goal, a controversial VAR-awarded penalty and a goalkeeping howler – but France, in the end, emerged triumphant to lift the trophy for the second time in their history.
Mario Mandzukic's regrettable own goal sent France on their way against the run of play in the first half, but Ivan Perisic restored parity 10 minutes later to give Croatia a deserved equaliser.
Mandzukic is now the first player to ever score an own goal in a World Cup final.
Antoine Griezmann's contentious penalty kick – which was awarded by referee Nestor Pitana after a prolonged VAR weighing up – put France back in front going into halftime, and goals from Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe effectively wrapped up the win in the second half.
A Hugo Lloris blunder which saw him gift Mandzukic a goal nearly handed Croatia a route back into the game with a little over 20 minutes left, but France saw the match out to repeat their heroics of 1998 and become the sixth team to have won the trophy more than once.
Nothing could dampen the French spirits, though, and the final whistle was greeted by euphoric scenes as France celebrated their historic success, with manager Didier Deschamps becoming the third man after Mario Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer to win the World Cup as a player as well as a coach.
Croatia, on the other hand, misses out on the chance to become the ninth different team to win the cup but have still recorded their best-ever World Cup showing this year.
This article was most recently revised and updated 4 years ago
